doot di doo...wasting away the last work day of the year here in the office. someone called in sick, so now there are three. these boxes of chocolate are bad for me.

too lazy to post pictures from christmas stuff right now, i'll leave that for next year.

some melancholy...

Christmas time has come and gone...

a merry winter - gifts and food, forgotten laughter
a Fatal error - Kills the mood, Destroys the moment

tears come after

...and here we are, both still.

all alone.

S | R

12.27.96

whoaa ok this stuff is pretty back-logged. only jotted most of this stuff down for myself b/c it was worth noting, probably won't be much here that's of interest to anyone else except for the last 2 entries:

pssst... - Sunday, November 20 2005

mom started knitting a baby blanket today. is this some sort of subtle hint?? =P

Tri's for 2006 - Tuesday, November 22 2005

oooh...i'm excited for the new year already! was checking out TriBC's tentative 2006 schedule at work and i've got my eye on some events:

-March 11, 2006 = UBC Triathlon
-May 22, 2006 = North Shore Spring Triathlon
-June 18, 2006 = Desert Sprint Triathlon

this is a cool song by "Ivan the Croatian": Vancouver Canucks!
http://www.cfox.com/shows/audio_archive.cfm?rem=19889&jor=19889&var=mid#midday

Friday, November 25 2005

let my guard down this week: pizza for snack on monday & thursday.

today it was a hot dog...and then i had a bag of nachos. and then i had lunch. O_o

Tuesday, November 29 2005

whoaa this is cool. i just found this out today:

i) go to http://www.bcit.ca
ii) click on "Contacts" at the top of the page
iii) type in "Raphael" and then do a search
iv) what do you get??


ME!

that's right, i'm cool now...=P

Sudoku - Wednesday, November 30 2005

mom n her teacher friends all seem to be obsessed w/ this new daily puzzle thing that comes in newspapers called "Sudoku". those crazy nips and their mind games...although i think it'd probably be a good thing for me to do once in a while, kinda like a workout for my brain. *ouch* it hurts already. O_o

the Point of No Return - Thursday, December 1 2005

the decision is final. the process has begun and there's no turning back: C O L O R

i was still a little hesitant, mainly concerned with the resilience of colour over time, especially given my active lifestyle. sticking w/ black and gray is somewhat "classic" and has it's advantages, but colour brings a certain life and energy to the piece that just can't be matched by fine lines and shading alone. still, i'm very wary about not overdoing it as i don't want some ugly rainbow-like effect, but rather, i want a darker tone overall; using thick black and shaded areas to bring out lighter coloured details; and bold, black background elements that will contrast with sparingly used brighter colors to create a stunning effect.

long road ahead.

"t" is for transliteration - Tuesday, December 20 2005

hmmm...got some spare time at work, so here's the latest that i've come up with in the search for the correct transcription of my name in its original language:

רְפָאֵל

hebrew is written horizontally from right to left, and from what i understand the alphabet symbols above(from r-l) are known as: Res, Pe, Alef, and Lamed.

until now, i'd only known the consonants but not the vowels. i knew a vowel system existed, but i just didn't know how it worked. the small markings that resemble dots and dashes underneath the first three characters (remember, right to left!) symbolize different phonetic vowels.

i think this transcription is in modern Hebrew though, and ideally i hope to be able to find one in Biblical Hebrew, which may prove a bit hard to find. i'm just glad i took basic linguistics @ UW when i was there, so that i at least have some idea of what the hell phonemes, vocables and fricatives are when trying to research a language.

tune in next time for tales from the Apocrypha and the Book of Tobit...

(whoaa, i feel like Indiana Jones or something...)

News Flash - Monday, December 19 2005

it's been busy lately, hence the lack of blogging. nothing TOO too significant has happened lately (i think...o yeah, i watched Narnia yesterday. that was kinda cool), other than the regular hustle & bustle that regularly comes along with this time of year. i think the only thing worth mentioning right now is the fact that today's work-day (Monday) seemed to fly by nicely. it kinda went like this:

0715(or somewhere around there) - open my eyes, find myself in bed. it's dark outside. can't remember what day (or what time of day) it is for a few seconds...start trying to remember what i did yesterday, "was there a weekend? do i have to wake up for work?"...and slowly i am able to come to the conclusion that it is indeed monday...

0830 - walk through the door to the office in the nick of time...and remember that the manager's on vacation till thursday. *score!*

1030 - it's been a busy morning, lots of phonecalls, damn apprentices wanting to reschedule/change dates for school...O_o time for my first 15...

1045 - we get cake! it's a co-workers birthday, she turns 29 today, so we all get to have cake. it's a nice big blackforest cake. you know, the one w/ chocolate, cherries, and whipped cream? *nice!*

1300-1400 - lunchtime. everything's closed, campus is dead. grab an issue of DOSE to read, eat my sandwich(es), yogurt, drink and take a nap.

1500 - i'm sitting at my desk, wondering if it's time for lunch yet...and then it hits me that it's already 3 and i've already eaten my lunch AND taken my nap! O_o?? i'm so out of it...so i decide i need to eat the last piece of that blackforest cake. mmm...

...and then just like magic, it was 1630! woohoo! to end off, what do i find sitting in the mail when i get home? a letter from JET. uh oh...the website said they wouldn't be notifying people whether or not they got interviews until FEBRUARY, so what the heck could this be? *drumroll*...i rip it open...and !BAM! i got me an interview!

*whew*

so this means despite my disgusting-looking passport photo, they thought i was worth interviewing. passport photos are already bad enough, but after i photocopied it for the application, i was seriously thinking they're gonna think i'm some sort of terrorist. i look uber-dark, plus i'm wearing a stupid t-shirt and my earrings w/ my messy hair. didn't really care at the time b/c i didn't think i'd use it to apply for anything important, guess i was wrong. but nonetheless, the powers that be from Nippon wanna see the Nipple, so wish me luck!

i leave you w/ a pic of the toy i'm donating for the Christmas toy drive at work:



someone's gonna be one lucky ass kid this Christmas!